Booking
It’s best to book your studio time as far as advance as possible, as we are often booked two to three months ahead. Free days do pop up here and there, but you’re guaranteed more flexibility if you’re able to plan ahead.
Studio Rates
The Echo Lab is $400 per day, whether booked with one of our house engineers or if you bring your own engineer.
If there is a specific house engineer you are interested in working with, you should contact them directly for scheduling. If you decide to bring an outside engineer, the fee includes an assistant on-hand for the duration of your session to help navigate our more finicky equipment.
This rate is for any work done at the studio, be it tracking, mixing, mastering, or waiting for you to show up. There are no extra charges to use any of of our equipment; anything at the studio is available for your use. This rate does not include media (tape or hard drives). You should discuss your media needs with your engineer beforehand to determine those costs.
Half-day and hourly rates are available upon request.
The client apartment is $25 per night.
“How long is a ‘day’?”
Generally, a day in the studio is between 8 and 10 hours of work, though this can go longer if the band and engineer feel up to it, or shorter if there is no more work to be done. Every engineer has their own preferences, though, so when you book your session, discuss working methods and time with your engineer.
Charging by the day, rather than by the hour, lets you focus on your music rather than the clock. It’s also more convenient for us, as we don’t have to charge a “lock-out” rate for multiple-day sessions.
Deposits
We require a $200/day deposit, as well as payment in full for any tape or other media you’ll need from us, in order to confirm your booking. Until we receive your deposit, your dates aren’t inked in and can be moved at any time, though we do endeavor to give you a good amount of warning before this happens.
Payment
We accept cash, money orders, and checks. If you need to pay via credit card, we accept payments through PayPal, but beware that there is an extra 4.5% fee added to your bill to cover the extra charges.
Tape
You can either buy tape from us, or bring your own. We purchase our tape from US Recording Media. You should discuss your tape (or other storage) requirements with your engineer beforehand, but for reference, a 10.5″ reel of tape will hold approximately 15 minutes of music at 30 ips, and 30 minutes at 15 ips.
Our current prices for new, ATR Magnetics Master Tape are:
- 2″: $289/reel
- 1/2″: $89/reel
- 1/4″: $55/reel
When available, we also sell used 2″ reels for $100/reel. We can also rent reels of 2″ tape for the duration of your project at $40/reel. We do not sell or use used reels of 1/2″ or 1/4″ tape.
Please note: we currently don’t recommend using new RMGI Emtec tape, because of continuous problems with their product. We hope this changes in the future.
Contact Information
email: info@theecholab.com
(Email is always the best way to reach us. Contact Matthew Barnhart, the studio manager by phone if necessary.)
House Engineers
Matthew Barnhart | mb@theecholab.com
Matt Pence | mp@theecholab.com
Dave Willingham | dw@theecholab.com
Organizational Staff
Matthew Barnhart | studio manager | mb@theecholab.com, phone: +1.214.641.2421
You can learn many more exciting things about these people at the staff page.